Wayne

What progress you are making, the baseboards look great, and what a home you have put them into, such a view (perfect when you are ballasting hour after hour) I don't know anything about the American railroad, model or real, but don't let a salesman sell you a DCC loco and a DC controller.

I am sure that with all the help here on the forum, and also your local friends, you will soon have some stock to run around on your new track. how long will the bridge be, could you put a piece of the base board across the gap, and build the bridge up to it.

I am really looking forward to watching your layout grow.

 

 

Alan,
I bought Atlas code 100 track, so no problem with low profile wheels. I took a serious look at the code 83 track, but after doing a simple "sag" test between the two I opted for the code 100, (plus it was quite a bit cheaper). It was quite stronger than the code 83. I did this because I intend to use the Woodland Scenics foam track bed under the track, so I wanted as much vertical strength as I could get.

Wayne

Wayne

Did you play golf today or lay some track.

Alan

If Wayne did go to golf and played that 19th hole i hope he does not come home and try and lay some track

cheers Brian

Brian

:cheers:cheers:cheers:cheers

Didn't play golf or lay track. I did however get all the top boards screwed in place and I have one layer of foam 3/4" glued in place over it all! :wow:Happy:wow:Happy:wow:Happy

Tomorrow will be a day of rest, then Monday, look out, cause the next layer of foam should get done. At that point, I will begin drawing out the track on the foam. The inclines from Woodland Scenics should be here on Wednesday.

I can here the whistle blowing in the distance….(if I get DCC with sound)  :cool wink

Wayne

Wayne

Can we have some images of the baseboards with the foam on them, as I am really interested to see them, also have you decided what you are going to do about the bridge section

Sure thing Alan, pictures will be forth coming. I took a peak and the foam this morning and everything looks like it stayed down in place. That's a good sign. The next layer is foam to foam, so hope the adhesive works as good to the foam as it does to the wood.

I have decided to build temporary bridges, probably out of wood that can be removed once the trestle has been built. The only issue at this point is determining what length the trestle will be without the mountain there to help figure it out. I think the best solution will be to use my layout drawing to get the dimension I need, then I will just have to build the mountain to fit! I guess that's the kind of "problems" I've been waiting for!

Wayne

Just took these pictures of the first layer of 3/4" thick styrofoam (blue). You can also see what the morning sun looks like coming in all those windows.



The adhesive I used is shown better in this picture.


I closed my sliding glass doors that lead into the house, and opened two windows for the night. That helped to get rid of the fumes from the glue, although they were not too bad at any time that I could tell.

Wayne  :doublethumb

Wayne

Looking good, the natural light that comes into your layout room, will be brilliant when you come photograph the layout.

Wayne

The use of blue Styrofoam seems very common in the USA. Is it a cheap material, as it is clearly well liked and effective, given its widespread use?

Bob(K)

Your are right Bob(K), it is well liked here. The cost was $12.99 per 4' x 8' sheet at 3/4" thickness. Still adds up over a large layout, but I really like the advantages it offers. I can carve it out to go lower than a surface mounted track, should produce some sound deadening, and gives a very flat surface to model on, pins inserted at a slight angle will stay put and hold well.

Wayne

Hi Wayne, that looks like a fairly thick baseboard. Are you intending to have turnout motors fixed under the boards or at the side?

Les

Les, for the time being I will mount them at the side. They are very small and I am hoping I can disguise them will ballast or something.

Wayne

[user=22]Wayne Williams[/user] wrote:

Les, for the time being I will mount them at the side. They are very small and I am hoping I can disguise them will ballast or something.

Wayne

Lots of little lineside huts coming up then Wayne ;-)

At $12.99 for an 8 x 4 sheet Wayne - it's fantastic value !!  Not surprised you use it !!

It's far more versatile than EPS (expanded polystyrene) but over this side of the "pond" - far more expensive !!

Your topped out boards look great.thumbs

Worked all morning and have finished putting on the blue foam (2 layers). I miss calculated my needs somewhat, thought I would use 10 sheets on the layout and only used 9. I bought two extra sheets to use for building up height on the layout, now I have three sheets. It's a 14 mile trip to return one sheet, plus a little flimsy hauling just one sheet, so guess I will store it and see what happens. Just maybe I'll need it for mountains or something.





This now needs to sit and dry completely, may take a day or two to accomplish that. So the plans are to play golf tomorrow, then a trip to the train store to get the Woodland Scenics Inclines on Wednesday.

In the meantime I have been reading up on installing flex track in some old Model Railroad magazines. A little knowledge can't hurt, can it?

Wayne

PS: Somebody pinch me, I can't believe I'm this far along already. :wow:wow:wow

Looks like you've got the regulator wide open now, Wayne. :doublethumb

It's really coming along a treat. I would think with a base like that, your trains will run virtually silently.

Nice work.

By the way, I wouldn't worry about having too much material; things always crop up where you need a bit extra in my experience.

Perry

Wayne

you have a beutifull blank page now so the fun begins now

As Perry has said you cannot have to much materials once you begin terraforming you will use that styrofoam up very quickly.

Anybody in the UK you can buy 8ft x 4ft sheets of polystyrene from buiders merchants it is used for insulation on new build projects you can buy it in varying thicknesses between 20mm up to 100mm and it is not expensive either.

Jablite is one of the trade names for it.

cheers Brian

What a base to start from Wayne, I'm really impressed, once you start to lay the flexi track down things will really move on at a pace, have you brought any stock yet, as this does help when laying track, and points, and if you can have two wire's to the end of a section, running a loco through helps even more.

Enjoy your round of golf, what handicap do you have.